A Bar Story From the Ranch
by Jturtle
Summary: A good 'ole fashioned night on the town is just what the healer ordered! Vignette


This was written as a 'Christmas present' for the JC forums. This is for amidalachick who requested anything to do with Tatooine.

Disclaimer: GL owns Tatooine and any object you might recognize but the characters and plot are all mine.

AN2: I'm not sure why I never posted this here, but here it is, a couple months late.

* * *

The bar was a mess. 

That's truly all one could say about such a run-down, out-of-the-way place.

The harsh suns of Tatooine had done a wonder on the paint job on the outside of the building. It no longer even resembled green paint. It was now a musty, orange-yellow sort of color and peeling off to expose the poorly built structure beneath it.

The inside was hardly any better. The tables were stone; for what reason no one would ever know. The bar was also stone but it had a wave like quality due to the wear and tear of so many tired customers resting their arms, legs, heads, or other appendages on it. The walls were decorated in a collage-like manner but, it appeared as though one or two customers had decided they could make a profit off of the disorganized wall hangings and had 'appropriated' said wall decorations.

The stench rising from the place was something of legend. It was primarily generated by the drunken slobbering customers that were sprawled about the place.

It was just the sort of place that the two brothers were looking for.

Var and Jorol Elsin walked in looking like confidant spacers just looking for a place to get a drink then hit the sack. In fact they were trying to ditch out on work at their family's moisture farm way out in the boondocks. They ordered a round of drinks and sat back to watch the other customers. There was a lot to see and tonight they were in for a treat.

Berv Dweva walked in looking more than a little self conscious. He was visiting his relatives that lived on Tatooine but he was completely unfamiliar with the climate. The heat had bothered him during the day but now the cold was bothering him during the night. What a place!

His father was a rich landowner on another out-of-the-way planet but at least there they had decent people. 'Daddy's little boy' was not used to the scummy bars and the wild spirit of Tatooine where his cousins lived. It was the stuff of family legend as to how that branch of their family had gotten here anyway. He was here to visit Khromi and Sal Dweva, his boisterous (to say the least) cousins.

Berv ordered a very virgin drink from the bartender, no sense getting drunk, and found a table by the back wall to sit at. This was most likely going to be his last night of freedom from his relatives as the seasonal celebrations were starting tomorrow.

Little did he know that he would be seeing more of his cousins tonight than he would ever have anticipated.

Urik Brock crouched in his seat near the bar eyeing the young pup who thought he belonged in the underworld of Tatooine, not that there was much else, but the obviously rich young man should have stayed home tonight. The twi'lek was having some problems in the financial department and looking for some one to relieve him of his difficulties.

Urik didn't think the young kid would be too difficult to jump. All he would have to do was stick his blaster in the kid's back and he would hand over his cash without much fuss. The kid wasn't even carrying any weapons! It was too easy.

But unbeknownst to him, just like three other beings in the bar, he was in for an interesting night.

"Not 'xactly what I spected, but good enough, I s'pose," Jorol's voice was slightly slurred due to the potent quality of his single drink.

"It's just like anything else we've been to. I don't know why everyone said we just _had _to come here," Var, being the more sensible twin, had decided to keep his wits about him tonight.

"Hey look. What's 'e doing to tha' poor guy over 'er?" Jorol asked.

A big bruiser of a man was stalking towards a completely unsuspecting kid who had his back turned to the room. Not a native then.

"He's sticking his blaster into the poor kid's back. You think we should go help him?"

"Nah. Let's jus' sit back an' watch the show."

"Alright. Whatever you say."

The man whispered something and the kid started to tremble. No one else made any move to help him. If he couldn't take care of himself then he shouldn't be here. That was just the normal mindset on Tatooine. The kid started to dig in his pockets and any one with half a brain could figure out what the punk wanted.

"Hmmm… Wonder if we should try tha' sometime. Ya know… just grab some cash to go to a bar back 'ome or somat." Var shock his head at his brothers' audacity. They both knew if he was sober he never would have suggested something like that.

Var reminded himself to never order a … what _had _his brother ordered anyway? Who knew. He'd ask him when they got home.

After the kid had forked over all the cash and Urik had given him a black eye for trying to hold out on him, Urik went and had himself a nice drink.

It looked like the kid was asking other people for money or something. Yeah right. Like anyone would hand over anything in this town. People wouldn't even tell someone the time of day unless there was something in it for them.

Berv was asking for a comm. unit.

He didn't want to admit it put he needed his cousins to come help him out. Berv really needed the cash that he had handed over so that brute wouldn't beat his face in. Of course the guy had started to anyway. So now he was wandering around nursing a black, or soon-to-be black, eye.

He walked up to a table that looked a little more promising than the others he had been to. "Excuse me, sirs. Might I borrow a comm. link?"

"Yes just a moment," one of the twins answered. The other looked to out-of-it to know what a comm. link was.

Berv appreciatively took the comm. and made a call to the farm. "Is Khromi or Sal there?" he asked.

"Come'on, Sal! We gotta get going!"

"I'm hurryin'. I'm hurryin'!"

"Lil' bro' _needs _us!"

Both girls jumped into the family's run down landspeeder. The poor, old piece of machinery sunk a few inches, unaccustomed to having weight seem to drop on it out of the sky. Or maybe it was accustomed; it simply sank every time in mute protest.

Jorol and Var watched silently as a beaten-up landspeeder pulled into the small cleared area in front of the bar intended for that purpose. Two stocky, large girls jumped out and the speeder seemed to rise slightly in relief.

"Com'on, Sal! Let's get in there and whop some punk butt."

"I'm coming." The other girl appeared to be nursing a stubbed toe. "This kriffin' speeder hates me."

They burst through the door; too close for the comfort of Jorol and Var, sitting just very near the door.

"See. What'd I tell ya? It's gonna be a grea' show tonigh'"

"It does appear that way doesn't it?"

"Hey look, the one with the funny haircut is talking." The haircut in question appeared to be a bowl cut that was allowed to grow out long enough to braid.

"Which one di' it, lil' bro'?"

The young guy who had asked to borrow their comm. link was pointing out the punk who had jumped him. The fellow didn't look overly-worried about the two females now approaching him.

"You mess with our cousin; you mess with us!" The other girl was speaking now. "let's get 'im Khromi."

As the one called Khromi approached the now trembling thug, her sister went in for the kill form the back. Khromi then grabbed the front of the guy's tunic. "You 'hold 'im Sal. I'll teach this fellow a lesson 'e won't forget."

The thug actually looked a bit scared at this point. "I can't hit a girl. I've never hit a girl before."

"Well you're gonna hit this one." Khromi shouted into the guys face.

All of the sudden the fellow twisted sharply out of Khromi's grip and ran out the door for his speeder. He hopped in and went speeding off towards the middle of the settlement where the bar was. The two sisters hopped in their own speeder and sped after him, screeching 'coward' until they were out of earshot.

"Hmm… good drinks this place serves…" Jorol slurred out.

"You were right. That was a pretty good 'show.'" Var didn't reply directly to his brother's rather random comment.

"Oh…hey look…there comin' back."

The thug hopped out of his speeder first and attempted to make a break for the front doors of the bar. The two sisters weren't far behind him.

"Idiot. He must've left somethin' pretty valuable to risk getting' trapped in here again," someone a table over from the brothers remarked. Most of the sober occupants of the bar had moved towards the front to watch the action.

The two sisters managed to corner him in the parking area. They were now having a nice game of cat-and-mouse around the randomly placed speeders. When the thug went one way; the two sisters would try to cut him off. He would then try another way and get himself caught up again.

By this point everyone was laughing; even those not sober enough to know what they were laughing at, were laughing.

"Wonder if anyone should go help the poor fellow." Var wondered aloud.

"Nah. It's too much fun to watch this," his brother replied.

The girls finally corned him against a wall of the bar and he willingly forked over the cash he had stolen. Then he hobbled to his speeder and took off in a hurry.

"Hey. That girl, Sal, I think she looks real familiar, ya know?" Jorol asked.

"Yeah. I think she went to grade school with us."

"Yeah."

"Yep. She hasn't changed a bit."

"Well, I think this is the best 'night on the town' we've had in a long, long, time."

"True that bro. True that."


End file.
